“We see it almost every day – right there in the headlines streaming across our screens and accompanied by panic-inducing adjectives: [category 5] hurricanes, [devastating] floods, [catastrophic] wildfires, [endless] heatwaves. The word “tornado” doesn’t even need an adjective to instill terror in all who read it. These ever-intensifying events are the ramifications of a changing climate. But what’s going on in between these cataclysmic events? Climate change doesn’t stop, lying in wait before unleashing its next ‘newsworthy’ disaster. Climate change is an ever-present phenomenon – and it always has been.

But human perception is not well-calibrated to pick up on rates of change on the order of decades or centuries. We have vague memories of different times; we say “back in the day,” when it seemed a little cooler, when weather was a little more predictable, and record-setting climatic events were the exception not the rule. Meanwhile, slowly, incrementally, the global average temperature continues to increase, sea levels continue to rise, and the natural world around us continues to experience all these effects while humanity turns up the AC, pours more water on landscaping, and looks at the 10-day forecast for some sign of immediate relief. It all sounds dystopic, and it’s no wonder each climatic event spurs apocalyptic preparations, but there is something that we miss in our panic. And it just happens to be the most hopeful piece of the puzzle.

In this webinar, Pepperwood’s Sentinel Site Manager, Ryan Ferrell shines light on the overlooked – the data that happens between the fear-inducing headlines. Ryan manages Pepperwood’s sentinel site, where these data are collected. The beauty of these field stations is that they capture the slow changes that take place every day, and which provide the big answers we need in order to adapt to our changing climate. In our North Bay region, Pepperwood’s sensors are always on – night and day, year after year – tracking metrics of change across the entire ecosystem. Sentinel sites all around the country, and world, seek to quantify long term trends (or changes) across two realms: the biotic landscape of flora and fauna, and the abiotic drivers of climate, like soil moisture and hydrology. As a site within the greater sentinel site network, we’re uncovering the relationships and synergistic effects occurring between the abiotic and biotic that make up the ecosystems in which we live. Ryan shares the oddly hopeful refreshingly illuminating story of these data.”

Details: Webinar: Capturing the Overlooked Effects of a Creeping Climate – Pepperwood Preserve